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We have started our series of lessons in the Castro Mariano Valley Elementary School! This week the kids prepared a delicious and healthy Mexican recipe contributed by one of our team members. Check out the recipes and the photos of the interactive class!

Country we are exploring: Mexico (Population: 122 million)

Capital: Mexico City

Continent: America

Official Language(s): Spanish

English Recipe Name: Tuna Pie

Name of dish in native country: Pastel de atún

Type of dish: Appetizer

Recommended season or holiday: The following recipe is very popular at children’s parties in Mexico, specially in the Mazatlán region. And one of our team members from Mexico mentions is traditional for her family holidays!

Serving Size: for 6 people

When it comes to health, Tuna fish has it all. It is rich in protein, low in fat, and is an excellent source of the essential omega-3 fatty acids, which make your brain smarter!

Ingredient spotlight: Tuna

Fish are vertebrate animals that live in the water. Vertebrate means they have a spinal cord surrounded by bone or cartilage.

When it comes to health, Tuna fish has it all. It is rich in protein, low in fat, and is an excellent source of the essential omega-3 fatty acids, which make your brain smarter!

Tools (optional): knife, blender, glass vessel, spoon

Ingredients:

1 package of white bread

1/4 of cream

6 slices of cheddar cheese

1 tin medium of bell pepper

2 cans of tuna in water or oil

1 can of vegetables for salad

mayonnaise to taste

Little Chef Duties: Measure all of the ingredients

Big Chef Duties: Mix all the ingredients in a blender

Little Chef Duties: Cut the edges of the bread and mix the ingredients for the salad

Learn while you wait:

Science: we discussed today the difference of mixtures that are homogeneous and heterogeneous, and asked the kids whether they know which mixture our food mixture became.

Heterogeneous and homogeneous refer to mixtures of materials in chemistry. The difference between heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures is the degree at which the materials are mixed together and the uniformity of their composition.

A homogeneous mixture is a mixture where the components that make up the mixture are uniformly distributed throughout the mixture. The composition of the mixture is the same throughout. There is only one phase of matter observed in a homogeneous mixture.

You can’t pick out components of a homogeneous mixture or use a simple mechanical means to separate them

(Our tuna and cream mixture)

A heterogeneous mixture is a mixture where the components of the mixture are not uniform or have localized regions with different properties. Different samples from the mixture are not identical to each other.

Math: Can you cut your sandwiches in different shapes, (rectangles, triangles), circles?

Also if this recipe asks for 6, and we need to make food for 12, how much more of each material do we need?

Presentation:

Enjoy a sandwich with your favorite cup of soup or beans

Teach the kids how to say Bon Appetit in the language of this recipe: disfrute de su comida

Did you know?

One of the biggest issues affecting kids in Mexico is the increase in child abduction.

Conversation Igniters:

Do you know what abduction means? What are some ways you can help help find missing children?

Take Action:

Read about some ways you can help with the problem of child abduction, and come to class next week prepared to talk about what you can personally do:

http://www.missingkids.com/HowYouCanHelp

Here some photos of the fun day we had at the Castro Elementary School!

Yesterday we had the opportunity to share the Chef Koochooloo idea with the 1st graders of the Belmont Oaks Academy. The kids had a great time discovering Argentina, while preparing the all time favorite Argentinian snack, the Sandwich de Miga! Our thanks go to the Academy and to the teachers, Erin Reaves and Danielle Thompson.

Sandwiches de miga are popular food items in Argentina where they are consumed mainly at parties or as snacks. These sandwiches de miga are similar to the English cucumber sandwich and it also resembles the Italian tramezzino. They are single or double layered sandwiches, made from a thin white bread without crust, filled with thinly sliced meat such as ham, eggs, cheese, tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, and other vegetables.

Here are the country facts in our traditional Chef Koochooloo format:

Course Category: Appertizer

Continent: South America

National Language: Spanish

English Recipe Name: Crumb Sandwich

Argentinian Name: Sandwich de Miga

The kids were very quick to spot Argentina on the globe. They already knew that the national language is Spanish and they even spoke some Spanish themselves! They were very interested to learn that the capital Buenos Aires actually means “good air” but were concerned to hear that this is no longer the case because of air pollution.

What captured their attention even more was the economic phenomenon of inflation. When introducing Argentina, one cannot but talk about the great economic challenge this country has been facing during the last decade. The kids where fast to grasp that inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level. Put in their own words “inflation means that all the prices go up and you can buy less with your money, so your money is not worth as much”. In this simple way we introduced the concepts of inflation and currency devaluation and had a spelling challenge, which they passed with flying colors!

Argentina, however, has much more than a gloomy economy. Argentina is the land of Tango! The kids were very enthusiastic to try it out! Claudia, out native Argentinian colleague simplified the Tango steps: Tango is about drawing a square with your feet! Geometry did the trick and the kids picked up on some great Argentinian dancing skills! The music in the background certainly captured their interest and increased their engagement.

After dancing, we all got really hungry, so we started preparing our sandwiches right away:

Ingredients:

Sliced bread

Cheese

Lettuce

Tomato

Corn

Ketchup

Mayonnaise

Lettuce originated in ancient Egypt and spread to ancient Greece and Rome. By the 16th century it was already very popular in both Europe and the Americas.

Ingredient spotlight: Lettuce

Lettuce originated in ancient Egypt and spread to ancient Greece and Rome. By the 16th century it was already very popular in both Europe and the Americas. Lettuce is a great source of vitamin A. Vitamin A promotes growth, the immune system, reproduction, and vision. More nutritional notes about lettuce can be found here

Preparation

Little chef tasks

Prepare your ingredients:

This is a crumb sandwich, so our first task is to remove the crust from our two bread slices.

Add ketchup and mayonnaise in a bowl and mix well to make the sauce

Here we introduced the primary and secondary colors by asking:

When adding red ketchup and yellow mayonnaise, what color do you think you sauce will be?

Wash the tomato and the lettuce

Slice the tomato

Cut the lettuce (if not precut)

Layer your sandwich:

Lay your bread slice and spread the sauce

Add the cheese, the lettuce, and the tomato and then sprinkle some corn on top.

Top it with your second slice of bread

Give you sandwich your favorite shape:

Cut your sandwich to make two small rectangles or two triangles or even 4 small squares! Here we introduced the basic shapes and some elements of geometry that the kids can visualize.